The End of Suffering and the Discovery of Happiness: The Path of Tibetan Buddhism. His Holiness the Dalai Lamaby His Holiness the Dalai LamaPosted by: DailyOM

This book presents a clear and straightforward road map to how we might end our experience of suffering and discover happiness, drawn by the most celebrated spiritual master of Tibetan Buddhism: His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. In this insightful volume, not only does His Holiness describe what religion can contribute to mankind, but he also accentuates the significance of truly practising religion and understanding what it is that mankind really needs. Familiar for his ever-smiling face and his message of love, compassion and peace, he explains the three turnings of the wheel of dharma; the purpose and the means of generating the mind of enlightenment; and, the twelve links of dependent arising, among other things. This new title offers an easily accessible and illuminating glimpse into the core of Tibetan Buddhism.

EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 3

Teachings on Je Tsongkhapa’s
Three Principal Aspects of the Path

INTRODUCTION
Whatever teachings are being given, both the listener and the teacher should have a pure motivation. Especially when you listen to a Mahayana teaching, you should firstly take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha to protect yourself from following the wrong path, and secondly you should generate an altruistic awakening mind [Bodhichitta] to differentiate yourself from followers of lower paths. Therefore we should visualize two points: firstly, taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha for the benefit of all sentient beings, and then generating the altruistic aspiration to enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. So with this motivation, we should recite the verse for taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha three times, clearly visualizing that we are doing so for the benefit of all sentient beings.

After the Incomparable Buddha had attained enlightenment at Bodhgaya, he taught the four noble truths: true sufferings, the true causes of suffering, true cessations, and true paths. This became the basis or foundation for all the later teachings he gave. Although the Buddha taught the four noble truths during his first turning of the wheel of the Dharma, the meaning of true cessation was most explicitly taught during the second turning of the wheel of doctrine. At that time he taught the meaning of emptiness directly, and implicitly taught the stages of the path. In other words, while teaching emptiness directly, he taught the meaning of the two truths, conventional and ultimate truth, and the complete meaning of nirvana and cessation.

During the third turning of the wheel of the Dharma, the Buddha taught the meaning of Buddha-nature in the Tathagata Essence Sutra that forms the basis for Maitreya’s Sublime Science (Uttaratantra) [also translated as Sublime Continuum]. He explained that sentient beings have a Buddha-nature, or an ability to become enlightened, mainly in terms of the nature of the mind, which is empty of inherent existence and thus suitable to be transformed into enlightenment. It is very clearly explained in the Sublime Science that the mind is by nature very pure and free of defilement, which makes it suitable for attaining enlightenment. This is because anything which lacks inherent existence is changeable, and subject to causes and conditions. As Nagarjuna says in his text called Fundamental Wisdom:

For whichever [system] emptiness is possible,
For that all is possible.
For whichever [system] emptiness is not possible,
For that nothing is possible.

The meaning of emptiness is being empty of inherent existence, and that means being dependent on something else, being dependent on causes and conditions. When we say something is dependent on other phenomena, it means that when those phenomena change, that particular thing will also change. If it were not dependent on something else and had inherent existence, then it would not be subject to change due to other conditions.

So, during the second turning of the wheel of doctrine, teaching that phenomena lack inherent existence, the Buddha taught clearly that phenomena can be made to change because they are dependent on causes and conditions. Now, although phenomena lack inherent existence, when they appear to us, we think that they exist inherently. Not only do phenomena appear as if they are inherently existent, but we also become attached to them and determine that they exist inherently. In this way we generate craving, desire, anger, and so forth. When we encounter some pleasant or interesting object, we generate a lot of attachment, and if we see something distasteful or unappealing, we get angry. Therefore, problems like anger and attachment arise because of conceiving phenomena as inherently existent.

The conception of phenomena as inherently existent is a wrong consciousness mistaken toward its referent object, which provides the foundation for all delusions. However, if we generate an understanding that phenomena are not inherently existent, it will act as a counterforce to that wrong consciousness. This shows that the defilements of the mind can be removed. If the delusions which defile the mind are removable, then the seeds or potencies left behind by these delusions can also be eliminated. The total purity of the nature of the mind, which is its lack of inherent existence, is taught very explicitly in the second turning of the wheel of the doctrine. During the third turning of the wheel, it is explained again, not only from the ultimate but also from the conventional point of view, that the ultimate nature of the mind is pure, and in its pure state it is only neutral and clear light.

For example, whoever we are, delusions do not manifest within us all the time. What is more, the same object toward which we sometimes generate anger, we sometimes generate love toward, which ought not to be possible. This clearly shows that the real nature of the principal mind, the mind itself, is pure, but due to mental factors or the minds that accompany the principal mind, it sometimes appears to have a virtuous quality like love, and at others it appears in a deluded form like anger. The nature of the principal mind is therefore neutral, but being dependent on its accompanying mind, it may change from a virtuous to a nonvirtuous mind.

So, the mind by nature is clear light, and the defilements or delusions are temporary and adventitious. This indicates that if we practice and cultivate virtuous qualities, the mind can be transformed positively. On the other hand, if it encounters delusions, then it will take on the form of delusions. Therefore, all such qualities as the ten powers of the Buddha can also be attained because of this quality of the mind.

For example, all the different kinds of consciousness have the same quality of understanding and knowing their object clearly, but when a particular consciousness encounters some obstacle, it is not able to understand its object. Although my eye-consciousness has the potential to see an object, if I cover it up it will be obstructed from seeing the object. Similarly, the consciousness may not be able to see the object because it is too far away. So the mind already has the potential to understand all phenomena, a quality that need not be strengthened, but it may be obstructed by other factors.

This excerpt was taken from the book, The End of Suffering and the Discovery of Happiness, by Dalai Lama. It is published by Hay House (May 2012) and available at all bookstores and online retailers.